Harold Ramis
'Harold Ramis '''was an American actor, comedian, director, and writer. He is best known for starring as Egon Spengler in the ''Ghostbusters ''films, which he also produced. History Early Life Ramis was born on November 21, 1944, in Chicago, Illinois,[3] the son of Ruth (née Cokee) and Nathan Ramis, who owned the Ace Food & Liquor Mart on the city's far North Side. Ramis had a Jewish upbringing. In his adult life, he did not practice any religion. He graduated from Stephen K. Hayt Elementary School in June 1958 and Nicholas Senn High School in 1962, both Chicago public schools, and in 1966 from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was a member of the Alpha Xi chapter of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity. Afterward, Ramis worked in a mental institution in St. Louis for seven months. He later said of his time working there that it ... prepared me well for when I went out to Hollywood to work with actors. People laugh when I say that, but it was actually very good training. And not just with actors; it was good training for just living in the world. It's knowing how to deal with people who might be reacting in a way that's connected to anxiety or grief or fear or rage. As a director, you're dealing with that constantly with actors. But if I were a businessman, I'd probably be applying those same principles to that line of work. Career Harold Ramis started his career by writing parodic plays in college, saying that "In my heart, I felt I was a combination of Groucho and Harpo Marx, of Groucho using his wit as a weapon against the upper classes, and of Harpo's antic charm and the fact that he was oddly sexy—he grabs women, pulls their skirts off, and gets away with it". After working in St. Louis, he returned to Chicago, where he worked as a substitute teacher for a few years. In 1972, he worked on ''National Lampoon. Between 1976 and 1984, he started the TV series Second City Television ''(or ''SCTV), which he wrote and performed on. By 1978, he left SCTV ''to pursue a film career. In 1984, he executive produced a music/comedy/variety television show called ''The Top, produced by Paul Flattery and directed by David Jove. He wrote a script with National Lampoon magazine's Douglas Kenney, which eventually became National Lampoon's Animal House. Next, he co-wrote Meatballs, starring Bill Murray. The movie was a commercial success and became the first of six film collaborations between Murray and Ramis. His third film and his directorial debut was Caddyshack, which he wrote with Kenney and Brian Doyle-Murray. It starred Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, and Bill Murray. Like Ramis's previous two films, Caddyshack was a commercial success. In 1984, Ramis collaborated with Dan Aykroyd on the screenplay for Ghostbusters, which became one of the biggest comedy hits of all time, in which he also starred as Dr. Egon Spengler, a role he reprised for the 1989 sequel, Ghostbusters II (which he also co-wrote with Aykroyd). His later film Groundhog Day has been called his "masterpiece". Personal Life Ramis was married twice and fathered four children. On July 2, 1967,[3] he married San Francisco artist Anne Plotkin, with whom he had a daughter, Violet Ramis Stiel.[1][25] Actor and Ghostbusters co-star Bill Murray is Violet's godfather.[1] Ramis and Plotkin separated in 1984 and later divorced.[1] In 1985, Ramis had daughter, Mollie Heckerling with director, Amy Heckerling.[26] In 1989, Ramis married Erica Mann, daughter of director Daniel Mann and actress Mary Kathleen Williams.[27] Together they had two sons, Julian Arthur and Daniel Hayes.[3]Although Ramis maintained Humanist beliefs, Erica's Buddhist upbringing was a huge influence on his philosophies for the rest of his life, and he became friends with the Dalai Lama. Ramis was a Chicago Cubs fan and attended games every year to conduct the seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley Field.[when?][28] His pastimes included fencing, ritual drumming, acoustic guitar, and making hats from felted fleece; additionally, he taught himself skiing by watching skiers on television.[1] Illness and death In May 2010, Ramis contracted an infection that resulted in complications from autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis and lost the ability to walk. After relearning to walk he suffered a relapse of the disease in late 2011.[29] He died of complications of the disease on February 24, 2014 at his home on Chicago's North Shore, at age 69.[29] A private funeral was held for him two days later with family, friends, and several collaborators in attendance including Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, David Pasquesi, Andrew Alexander, and the widows of John Belushi and Bernard Sahlins. He is buried at Shalom Memorial Park in Arlington Heights. Upon Ramis's death, President Barack Obama released a statement, saying: "when we watched his movies—from Animal House and Caddyshack to Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day—we didn't just laugh until it hurt. We questioned authority. We identified with the outsider. We rooted for the underdog. And through it all, we never lost our faith in happy endings."[30] He ended his statement by saying he hoped Ramis "received total consciousness", in reference to a line from Caddyshack.[31] Ramis and longtime collaborator Bill Murray had a falling out during the filming of Groundhog Day, which Ramis attributed to issues that Murray had with his own life at the time. They did not speak for more than 20 years. Shortly before Ramis's death, Murray, encouraged by his brother Brian Doyle Murray, visited him to make amends with a box of donuts and a police escort, according to Ramis's daughter Violet. At that point, Ramis had lost most of his ability to speak, so Murray did most of the talking over several hours.[32]Murray gave tribute to Ramis at the 86th Academy Awards.[33][34] Ramis was paid tribute by Stephen Colbert on an episode of his show The Colbert Report. Colbert said that "as a young, bookish man with glasses looking for a role model, I might have picked Harold Ramis". He ended the show by thanking Ramis.[35] Roles Egon.jpg|Egon Spengler Ghostbusters films Filmography Category:People Category:Males Category:2010s deaths Category:Americans Category:Humans Category:2014 deaths Category:American Actors Category:Directors Category:Comedians Category:Screenwriters Category:Writers Category:People from Illinois Category:Ghostbusters